The interactive coimagination method is aiming the older adults living alone to participate in the coimagination method, the group conversation support method, by talking to Mini Bono-chan instead of having conversations in a group.
The participant can make use of cognitive functions by having conversations based on photos of a specific theme, especially, making actions such as looking at the photos, listening to the stories, thinking about the questions to ask, and asking questions.
Compared to Bono-chan (link to the Bono-chan’s page), this robot is made smaller by the reduced arms and body movements and thus can easily fit into the home environment.
Reference:
S. Tokunaga, M. Otake-Matsuura (2020). Development of a dialogue robot Bono-06 for cognitive training of older adults. Gerontechnology, 19(0), 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2020.19.s.69666
From a request of Riken, Yukai Engineering assisted in the design, hardware design/manufacturing and firmware design/production.